Working with the VMware Lookup TableVMware

How to Set Up the VMware Lookup Table
How to Populate the VMware Lookup Table

How to Set Up the VMware Lookup Table

The VMware adapter includes a SAS data table that enables you to provide memory specifications for the hosts in your environment. This table is located by default in the SASHELP library and contains no data. If you want to use this table to provide memory information, perform the following steps:
  1. Locate, or create, the IT data mart that you want to use for staging VMware data.
  2. Locate the Administrative folder. Right-click the library within that folder. (The library is called Admin nnnnn, where nnnnn is a random number that was generated when the IT data mart was created.)
    Select View Libname.
  3. Select the entire LIBNAME statement in the displayed box. Then right-click the LIBNAME statement and select Copy.
  4. Launch an interactive session of SAS. Use the Paste function to paste the LIBNAME statement into an Editor window.
  5. Submit the LIBNAME statement.
  6. In the Explorer window, locate the SAS data table called ITMS_VMware_HostMemory by drilling down into the SASHELP library.
  7. Use the Copy and Paste functions to copy this table to the Admin nnnnn library.
  8. Now you can edit the table that you copied to the Admin nnnnn library. To do so, use VIEWTABLE to add and update rows. (To access VIEWTABLE, double-click the table in the Explorer window.)
The ITMS_VMware_HostMemory lookup table has the following six columns:
  • Cluster
    the name of the cluster.
  • Host
    the name of the host.
  • EsxHostTotalRam
    the total amount of physical RAM in the ESX host machine that is seen by VMware ESX.
  • EsxHostSystemRam
    the total amount of RAM that is allocated to the VMkernel. This amount does not include virtualization overhead. This amount is the fixed amount of RAM that is available based on the host's total RAM.
  • EsxHostVirtualMachinesRam
    the amount of physical memory that is available for virtualization. This value is calculated by subtracting the Service Console memory (if applicable) and the System Memory from the total amount of RAM in the host.
  • EsxHostServiceConsoleRam
    the total amount of RAM that is configured for the Service Console (if applicable).
The value in the cluster column should be the name of the cluster. The value in the host column should be the name (or the IP address if your site references hosts by address only) of the host for this observation. (Case matters. The names in the Host column should match the names in vCenter up to the first period. For example, Machine.abcdefg.company.com should be listed as Machine.) You can also update this table programmatically if it has the correct columns, as described previously.
When this table is populated and you run the staging code, the following columns in the HostSystem staged table will have with the correct values from the lookup table:
  • EsxHostTotalRam
  • EsxHostSystemRam
  • EsxHostVirtualMachinesRam
  • EsxHostServiceConsoleRam
If values for the memory metrics are not provided for a cluster and host, then those variables are set to missing values for that cluster and host. If the lookup table does not exist in the ADMIN library or is empty, then all values for the four mentioned memory variables are set to missing.
Note: If the lookup table does not exist in the ADMIN library or is empty, the HA and DRS supplied reports that depend on the EsxHostTotalRam, EsxHostSystemRam, EsxHostVirtualMachinesRam, and EsxHostServiceConsoleRam metrics cannot provide useful reports.

How to Populate the VMware Lookup Table

The Virtual Center (vSphere Client) contains information that can be used to load the VMware lookup table. To populate the VMware lookup table, perform the following steps:
  1. Log on to the VMware vSphere Client.
  2. In the menu bar, select Inventorythen selectHost & Clusters.. The name of each cluster is displayed in the left panel next to the symbol Cluster Icon.
  3. For each cluster that is listed, perform steps 4 and 5.
  4. Click the + to expand the contents of the cluster. All the hosts that are associated with that cluster are listed.
  5. For each host that is listed, perform the following steps:
    1. Click the name of the host. The page containing the host details opens in the right pane. In the right pane, click the Configuration tab.
      Host Details Page of VMware vSphere Client
      Host Details Page of VMware vSphere Client
    2. In the Hardware section, click Memory. The four memory values are displayed. Enter the four values for the appropriate host in the VMware lookup table as follows:
      • Copy and paste the Total value into the EsxHostTotalRam column.
      • Copy and paste the System value into the EsxHostSystemRam column.
      • Copy and paste the Virtual Machines value into the EsxHostVirtualMachinesRam column.
      • Copy and paste the Service Console value into the EsxHostServiceConsoleRam column.
        Note: EsxHostServiceConsoleRam is applicable only to VMware versions prior to vSphere 5.1, which was when the ESXi architecture was released.
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